A3 | Awaken to God’s Presence: Finding Calm in the Storm | Holy Attention

Joelle Wight:   0:05
A gift peace in the midst of troubling times, Projects Zion Podcast offers this series of guided practices to help you connect with the Divine no matter where you are, what's going on around you. Take a deep brown and allow your spirit to find calm in the storm of life.

Katie Harmon-Mclaughlin:   0:30
Hi, this is Katie Harmon-McLaughlin Community of Christ Spiritually Formation Ministries and this week will be focusing on the practice of holy attention. You might hear the birds for my front porch as I share this. For me, the practice of Holy Attention is one of the best ways that I can settle into Divine reality. Always available here and now. Walter Burghardt defines contemplation as a long, loving look at the rial. You are invited through this practice to settle into a deeper gaze wherever you are. If you can go outside creation, conserve as a wonderful place to gaze deeply at the intricacies and beauties of life surrounding, but it can also happen anywhere, even in your own home. This is a practice that can also happen in the midst of daily life, as you choose to see the more that is always president in life exactly as is. You are invited to take a few minutes simply to wake up. Let your gaze be drawn in gratitude and curiosity to the details that air surrounding you notice what is beautiful, messy, comfortable or wholly in your own sacred ordinary life. Notice what you are grateful for. Notice what you haven't noticed before or haven't noticed in a while. Take a long loving look at the space that holds you in this moment. Wake up to life as it is happening. As you prepare for this practice, invite you to begin by spending a few moments observing your breath, noticing each inhale and exhale without trying to force or control anything.  Wake up first to your own aliveness and notice where you are. Notice how your body inhabits the space where you are present.  

Katie Harmon-Mclaughlin:   3:04
Notice what is around you right now. Engage your senses as you awaken to this moment. Let your gaze be drawn to something, perhaps a small piece of earth nearby or somewhere in your home, and notice what captures your attention as you practice loving curiosity. Spend time sustaining the gaze, noticing the intimate, intricate details of whatever is before you. Spend a few moments simply in this way of seeing curious, awake, alive, attentive.  

Katie Harmon-Mclaughlin:   6:09
How is divine life being revealed? Even now, in what you can see, hear, smell, touch, perceive? Where is God showing up for you in reality as it is in this precise moment?

Katie Harmon-Mclaughlin:   7:22
 Continue to breathe and notice and spend as much time as you need here and when you are ready, conclude your prayer as a way of opening to God's presence throughout your day.

Katie Harmon-Mclaughlin:   7:39
It's challenging to sustain this level of gazes throughout our daily activities, but moments of sacred awareness can come as gifts of grace throughout our life. You're invited to notice. Where is your attention drawn today? What ordinary activities might be charged with moments of sacred awareness? What details of your ordinary life might be calling for your attention in a new way. How is the God present in all things, seeking to be revealed through your life, your home, your yard, your neighborhood, your world this day? Amen.